Iron Wok Jan 17

I’m just going to do a couple quick posts tonight.  I’m up way too late and am way too sick for this.

Thankfully, I’m not too sick for Jan, and I thoroughly enjoyed this volume.  I had put off reading what I have of this series because I started getting burned out on the tournament plots last volume, but this one somehow made it awesome again.  Of course all the competitors that we thought would go ahead advanced to the next round, but Jan made a big spectacle of himself, and I enjoyed every minute of his groveling and bowing to Otani in order to get his dish tasted.  It did seem odd that the judges rejected him without tasting the whole dish, though.  To be fair, he is a jerk, and probably didn’t ask nicely.

Not as much was made of Kiriko and Celine’s dishes, which was also nice.  I was expecting big, drawn-out chapters about the struggle to make their dishes, but they were just mentioned, along with anyone else who will be a prime contender in the competition.  Surprisingly, Okonogi is also still around, which is nice.  I like the inclusion of Okonogi as a sort of everyman, and I also like the friendship between he and Jan since it makes Jan seem like more of a real person.

I also really liked that Jan’s next round finished up at the end of the volume, too.  There were some flashbacks to his grandpa’s training, which entertain me because they’re so over-the-top, and even Kiriko’s grandfather told a cautionary tale about a potential opponent in the competition.  I’m looking forward to reading more now, which is no less than what this series deserves.  It is pretty fun, if a bit repetitive, and I love its over-the-top nature.

Iron Wok Jan 16

Okay, I’m definitely sick of the cooking competitions now.  It’s sad for me that this one will likely last at least another two or three volumes, if not all five of the ones I just bought.  I still really like this series… I like the idea of asshole Jan never being put in his place and just being better than everybody, and I love the great lengths that everyone goes to in order to crush his ego.  I think this is a good idea no matter what series it appears in, but the novelty of having this happen amid Chinese Chefs is pretty funny.  I just wish they did things more in the restaurant, or in their homes, or that something else would happen that wasn’t a televised cooking competition.

So.  After nearly being disqualified last volume, Jan tops himself and nearly gets thrown out of the competition once again after destroying a stove, interfering with his competitor’s dishes, and setting off the sprinkler system while cooking.  But of course his cooking once again overcomes his nasty personality, and of course he moves on.  This was just a qualifying dish though, so the actual competition only just gets underway at the end of the volume.

The first dish is a Tofu dish.  There’s an extra challenge this competition with “special” judges, which quite frankly don’t add that much novelty… but are at least a little amusing.  The judging for Jan’s dish isn’t even complete by the end of the volume.  I have no idea how many rounds this competition will last, but I am definitely not looking forward to next volume, which is likely just Kiriko and Celine’s dishes judged, some drama surrounding the other contestants, and then the preliminaries of the next round.  I imagine this could go on for quite some time.

My patience is definitely wearing thin.  I’ll stick with it in hopes of something different happening after this competition… but my hopes are not high.

Iron Wok Jan 15

I’ve got a bunch of stuff to talk about again, including Me and the Devil Blues and After School Nightmare.  Both of those deserve more of my attention than I’m going to be able to give tonight, but I don’t have to think too hard about this volume of Iron Wok Jan, and I have only one word for the newest volume of Tenjho Tenge: awesome.

As expected, Kiriko, Celine, and Jan mop the floor with Otani.  I mean, it’s not like you weren’t expecting it.  They all sort of did it equally… not only did they prepare goose dishes better than his chef, but they prepared awesome goose dishes that Otani had no idea what was in until he tasted them.  Sometimes not even tasting could give him the correct ingredient, either.

The television show doesn’t really go anywhere from there, which is sort of disappointing.  There’s a chapter or two of in-between stuff, which I felt was kind of wasted since it was mostly about what the four Gobancho chefs were doing to prepare for the upcoming tournament.  The tournament prelims start again, and this time there are questions to answer instead of a cooking challenge.  All the characters from the first tournament come back, including the kid with all the cooking equipment and the kid with the girls swarming him.

Apparently Jan and the elder Gobancho made a bet about the competition to make it interesting.  I have no idea why the elder Gobancho was hassling Jan and calling him a failure (and telling him he had all the scars on his back because he was a poor chef who had to have his mistakes beaten out of him or something – that was pretty cold).  The tournament can only end one way now, so… let’s see if that’s how it goes.

Iron Wok Jan 14

I guess I read about half this volume right after 13.  The end of the science cooking battle actually happens at the beginning of this volume.  Not that you couldn’t already predict the results at the end of volume 13.  Of course the oven cooks it perfectly throughout, but is that really the best way to cook meat?  Even I know that, and I can’t even boil water.

This volume won its place in my heart permanently when it had its three cockiest characters dressed in pig suits and humiliated on national television.  Not only that, they’re all forced to cook in the suits, too.  Even Jan, who cooks nearly his entire meal in the most ridiculous costume you can imagine.

The next battle is organized by Otani, Jan’s long-suffering rival, the food critic with the Tongue of God.  He brings Jan, Kiriko, and Celine onto a live program and basically proceeds to humiliate them with a French Chef who cooks one of the most famous French goose dishes, one which is apparently “impossible” to beat since this is the best way to cook goose.  Kiriko, Jan, and Celine all go about the impossible in their own ways, and their dishes aren’t going to be revealed until next volume, apparently.

Iron Wok Jan 13

I have to admit, I’m kind of disappointed that the next opponent is the servant.  After suffering through a battle where it’s repeated again and again that the opponent is an amateur, it’s hard to read more along the same lines, even though her techniques are slightly more unique.

Well, no, I don’t even want to say her techniques are unique.  All the characters react like they are, but didn’t Jan JUST WIN against Taoist Gogyo, who used the same sort of principles with a different name to do things like make people eat more, etc?  Everyone seemed impressed by this, like they hadn’t just gone through this a week ago.  Plus she uses technology, like the guy who failed spectacularly in competition several volumes ago.  Versus technology, which is, in theory, “perfect,” Jan is of course using some incredibly hard to pull off and arcane bit of cooking knowledge that nobody is impressed with.  Again.  I mean, I guess he is a jerk, but still.

Yeah, I’ll keep reading anyway.  I’ve already started on the next volume.  The promise of more of that cocky food critic will keep me coming back.

Iron Wok Jan 12

As much as I really like reading this series, I’m not so fond of the competition between Jan and the spoiled rich boy.  I figured it was over at the end of last volume, so I wasn’t really anticipating an entire volume more of it, let alone two more volumes.  But it’s still good, because it’s offering more opportunities for crazy stuff than the Taoist Gogyo story did.

I think the thing I love most about this series is that it’s not ashamed of using conveniences and coincidences in the most obvious ways possible, which is hilarious to me.  A good example is when the rich kid makes his and Jan’s battle sort of impromptu out in front of Gobancho, and a busload of Chinese tourists smell something good and wander over just in time to judge.  Later, they come back, this time with some French tourists, because now there’s some French elements to the rich kid’s cooking.  There is a total lack of irony in the story when these things happen, and I love the take-it-or-leave-it way this stuff comes up.  I just do.

The dishes are also somehow more and more insane every time.  The pidgeon blood pie and deer tendon dishes are still standouts in my mind… but somehow, Jan winds up doing something for each match that apparently few chefs in the world can do.  Somehow, this is never enough to win him the battle in and of itself, but only worth commenting on once or so, just so you know its a special skill.  Somehow though, his opponent inevitably does something that makes everyone ooh and aah.  Please, ignore Jan!  He’s only using Dragon Tears!  He’s only roasting a whole duck on a spit!

He’s also still a huge jerk, which is a big plus.  There’s some in-between moments here too, parts where Jan isn’t competing, and I could always use more of those.  I especially like the parts with him and the male apprentice chef.  It’s good to know that even Jan has a friend.

Iron Wok Jan 11

The Right Stuf just had a Dr Master sale recently, so I got the next five volumes of this series. I really should have ordered them from the Dr Master site (or whatever the shop linked from there is) some time ago, but I don’t want to tire myself out on this too quickly. I want to savor it.

I wouldn’t have believed it, but most of this entire volume is the conclusion of the contest between Jan and the Taoist.  I mean, last volume they were both done cooking, so all we’re getting here is the spectacle of the taste test.  I loved it.  Both of the characters fought dirty, but the Taoist had a particularly twisted plan for his meal, and also tried to play a dirty trick on Jan when he nearly killed the judges by having them follow his durian meal by drinking wine.

Let me tell you, I have a hard time believing ANYTHING can get rid of the smell of durian.  I don’t care what Iron Wok Jan says.  It seems I went on at length about this the last time I spoke of this series.  That’s cool, it bears repeating.

The last two chapters deal with a battle between Jan and an amateur chef who has hired Jan, Kiriko, and company to his house.  He hires them to cook a Gobancho meal, but of course he just wants to challenge Jan.  You can imagine how that goes.  I think the story breaks off pretty cleanly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if its continued next volume with Kiriko teaching them a lesson.

The formula here is pretty basic, but I can forgive the series this based on the fact that Jan is an awesome character.  I just found out that this is a Shonen Champion series, and based on the awesomeness of… I don’t know, Apocalypse Zero, I would hazard a guess that all Shonen Champion series are way over the top.  That’s fine with me, it just reinforces my fondness for anything Akita Shoten publishes.

Iron Wok Jan 10

I thought bringing 5 volumes of RG Veda and 5 (turned out to be 6) volumes of Dragon Ball was going to be too much for me to read.  It looks like I’m going to get through a ton more of my manga backlog than I thought this week.  I may actually run out of stuff to read, which is amazing considering I brought around 33 volumes to read and another 9 volumes that I had to write about.

But this was one of the series I had the most volumes of.  I’m a little sad I’m not going to get to finish off the battle with the Taoist soon, but things were definitely ramped up in this volume.  Jan uses “Dragon Tears” along with things like scorpions and geckos in a dish meant to enhance longevity, and when the Judges find out “Dragon Tears” are actually whale gallstones, they are rather nonplussed by the dish and Jan has to shame them into eating it.  Apparently it was so good that blood spurted out their noses.  Just in case Jan’s dish wasn’t evil enough, the Taoist entry to this category was one which forced the person eating to consume food until their body had enough nutrients.

I was happy to see the Taoist drop all semblance of his good persona in this volume.  He’s actually just as bad as Jan when it comes to being evil, manipulating people, and wanting to win.

The match is driven into a fifth round, a tiebreaker.  The theme is to take the person eating the dish to heaven by making the best dish possible.  Unfortunately, Jan uses Durian fruit.  Durian fruit is, in fact, the most rotten, foul fruit on the face of the Earth, and it neither smells nor tastes good.  I’ve given it several chances, because I want to believe it serves a purpose in cooking somehow, but I have not yet found its calling… so to speak.  Despite the fact that Jan does something to it to make it smell better, I tend to agree with the Taoist, I think Jan will lose solely because he laid his hands on that fruit.  He should have known better.

Iron Wok Jan 9

As I said, I prefer the shorter battles, but it kills me the way this volume slowly cracked through the goody-goody mask of Jan’s opponent to show he may be just as evil as Jan is.  Jan’s working really hard to get the rest of the crowd to see the guy’s true nature.  Of course, the crowd isn’t really appreciating his efforts, but he’s working on it all the same.  The opponent is also not a real chef.  It’s not revealed what his true nature is, but he’s likely some sort of herbalist or pharmacist.  Jan can go blow for blow with him when it comes to making medicinal foods, but it’s amazing to me that the opponent can prepare food as delicious as Jan when he is not a chef.  So it goes.

I didn’t quite understand that the battle was 5 rounds.  I was worried after Jan lost one round, and I wasn’t sure how things stretched out as long as they did, but we pass the third round.  Kiriko shows up after seeing Jan beaten so badly on TV at Gobancho, but Jan won’t let her swap places with him, so she winds up doing little more than Celine and the other trainee on the sidelines.

The series also provides some beautiful visuals.  There’s a full-page illustration of Jan wielding a chainsaw like a maniac.  There’s another compelling image which may be most of a page where Jan is holding a headless turtle and draining its blood into a little cup.  Some of my personal favorites, which are not hard to slip in, include when Jan is waving his tongue at something, sometimes running it along a knife.  He is truly an evil character.

This series is just beautiful.

Iron Wok Jan 8

I kinda think the honeymoon is over for this series, but it’s still quite good.  After one chapter that wraps up the Gobancho Spring Roll challenge, the story immediately moves into a new arc where the food critic once again tries to publicly disgrace Jan, this time by challenging him with a chef who seems to be well-acquainted with Chinese herbal remedies.

The battle takes place on television, and after the food critic sends over invitations to a new restaurant featuring the above chef in an exploding hog’s head cooked to perfection (the new restaurant where, incidentally, the asshole from a bit ago, Dan, was fired in favor of the new guy).  Not one to back down from a challenge, Jan shows up to the welcoming ceremony in drag and brings over exploding heads in the likeness of the food critic and the chef.  This was televised, so the restaurant decided to cast a televised showdown between the new chef and Jan in order to save their reputation.

Jan, of course, is cast as the devil in the ads.  This seems to thrill him, and he quite enjoys playing the part at the actual competition.

The reason I say the honeymoon is over is just because I can see this particular story arc runs until at least volume 11 (which I don’t have), and I don’t really like the challenging chef very much… though he does try to rob Jan of his sense of taste right away, and it seems he gets more and more demonic as the competition wears on.  I prefer the short Gobancho-oriented challenges to these long stories which introduce new characters.  This series is still fantastic though, and I’ll probably still order the next ten volumes after the new year.